this week our viewer question comes from nina caleb thing who lives in the capital of georgia. how many women have been in space so far and what were their missions. the 1st female in space was valentino terrace corba the pioneering soviet cosmonaut when into orbit in 1963 she's the only woman to have flown into space solo. it wasn't until nearly 20 years later that sped learner 7 scalia became the 1st woman to set foot on a space station and in 1984 the 1st to carry out a space walk but gender equality in space was still light years away. american astronaut sally ride was preparing to take off on this space shuttle challenger to deploy to satellites when nasa asked her if 110 pounds would be enough to see her through the week long trip a number that would last. most woman for months. but slowly female astronauts gained acceptance in 1905 eileen collins was the 1st woman to pilot a space shuttle she flew the discovery to the russian space station mir. and in 2007 peggy whitson became the 1st female commander of the international space station the us. with a total of $665.00 day